Does competition improve public school efficiency? A spatial analysis

Advocates for educational reform frequently call for policies to increase competition between schools because it is argued that market forces naturally lead to greater efficiencies, including improved student learning, when schools face competition. Researchers examining this issue are confronted with difficulties in defining reasonable measures of competition within local educational markets. We approach the problem through the application of Geographical Information System (GIS) tools to the development of a school competition index (SCI) for the state of Mississippi. The SCI captures the degree of competition each public school in the state faces from peer private schools spatially located within their local market area. We find that higher degrees of competition from private schools significantly increase public primary and high school efficiency, as measured by the proficiency rates on high-stakes examinations. It is anticipated that the current results will inform policymakers regarding the viability of competition-based reforms.     

What Counts as 'Success'? Hierarchical discourses in a girls' comprehensive school

In the UK, as in many parts of the world, educational policy is dominated by the 'standards agenda': the top-down drive to improve students' performance in examinations. Simultaneously, there is policy emphasis on (differing versions of) 'inclusive education', and mainstream schools are exhorted to remove barriers to learning and participation for students who would until recently have been educated separately in special schools. This paper examines one of the many tensions between these two policy imperatives. Using findings from an ethnographic study in one comprehensive girls' school in an English city, I identify three distinct versions of educational 'success'--'dominant', 'consolation' and 'really disabled'. This paper explores how students identified as having 'special educational needs' position themselves and are positioned by the three discourses, and suggests that the hierarchisation of what can count as 'success' is an important dimension in the enduring reproduction of educational and societal inequalities.     

Reforming American Schooling

Within the educational field, measurements such as the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS), and the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS) suggest we are living in a time of competition. This article takes a critical view of the modern drive to measure, evaluate, and rank programs within the educational field. Using Ken Wilber's epistemological quadrant-model, I analyze the question, “What is a good school?”     

Media representations of national and international standardized testing in the Israeli education system

This study applies discourse analysis to Israeli media coverage of national and international standardized examinations within Israel's public education system. Through systematic analysis of the topic in the two main Israeli financial publications between the years 2000 and 2013, we explore the nature and narrative of the media and compare the coverage of national and international standardized testing. We find that most of the media attention was devoted to international examinations, while national examinations were covered in a more limited yet critical way, perceived as unnecessary and even dubious. International examinations, in contrast, were described as axiomatic components of the education system. Articles on both national and international standardized testing criticize the education system, blaming teachers, the Ministry of Education, budget constraints, and marginalized populations for Israeli students’ inadequate results. We frame our analysis by alignment of the articles along global–local and also neoliberal–humanistic axes. We structure our assessment within the global–local nexus and discuss the broader implications of the role of the testing in framing the local educational public discourse.     

Financing public education in the southern states

A study of curriculum goals set forth in school-leaving examinations in mathematics and biology from Egypt, Iran, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, and Tunisia benchmarked against the French baccalaureat examinations. This investigation uncovers and contrasts the goals of secondary education as they are put forward in the tests that are used in the certification of completion of secondary studies in these countries. The work takes advantage of a metric developed for the Third International Mathematics and Science Study efforts to measure educational goals for school mathematics and science. Tests from the sample of Middle Eastern and North African (MENA) countries are found to emphasize traditional content and the ability to recall and apply routine procedures and algorithms. These goals are contrasted with French school-leaving examinations and the implications of these findings for understanding and assessing curriculum policy in MENA, in a context of educational reform and the challenges of economic competiveness are considered.     

Viewing international students as state stimulus potential: current perceptions and future possibilities

In this difficult economic climate state policy makers are increasingly focused on higher education as an economic development tool. Many rust belt states are looking to transform themselves from a state dependent on manufacturing and agriculture to a more diverse knowledge based economy. Many nations use higher education as a catalyst for economic development but rarely has it been viewed as a more local state or province based initiative. Therefore, one often overlooked component of an integrated economic strategy is encouraging more international students to attend college in a particular state, as an economic development tool. International students not only add significantly to the local economy through direct expenditures, but enrich the experiences of domestic students. In addition, many international students remain in the community in which they were educated, adding a global dimension to existing firms, or in many cases, establishing a new entrepreneurial venture. As competition for students intensifies, and states look to find solutions to supplement their growing budget deficits, many more will be looking to promote their public universities to increase international student enrollment. Yet little is known about the perceptions of the two groups, international students and domestic students, who will be most directly impacted by the economic and public policy issues. Understanding the perceptions of international students is crucial to developing an effective marketing plan, while views of domestic students are also important as they shape the experiences of international students and influence public policy. The current study utilised a survey of more than 800 students to measure current students' perceptions in the following three areas: the state economy, impact of international students, and public policy and international students. Results suggest that domestic students are concerned about the state's economic future, have a positive perception of the economic benefits of international students, and support policies to increase international student enrollment. International students have more positive views of globalization and the positive economic impact of internationalization of education. In addition, international students have a positive perception of their experiences in the state, although many do not, at this time plan to stay in the state after graduation.     

Assessment in Roman Education

This paper examines the content and institutions of Roman education, focusing particularly on the education associated with literacy and numeracy. It seeks to show how a widely standardised and highly socially embedded web of educational practices could function, without formal examinations, by means of high levels of competition and other less formal means of assessment. It considers the role of educational competition in defining and maintaining social élites and looks at the increasingly formal assessment of teachers in the later Roman empire.     

Teachers,Writers, Professionals. Is there anybody out there?

This paper draws on questionnaire responses from senior commissioning editors located within nine of the major UK education publishing outlets. It explores changing priorities in educational publishing with reference to authorship, readership and the changing policy context within which publishing 'lists' are conceived, developed and marketed. The shift of orientation within educational publishing from a 'general' to a 'professionalised' public is central to the argument of the paper. That argument is pursued through an analysis of how the changing priorities of educational publishing are impacting upon academics and practitioners. Central to that analysis, however, is a recognition that publishing houses, schools and institutions of further and higher education are subject to social and economic pressures that not only shape the educational agenda, but help determine what groups, individuals, institutional interests, etc. constitute the 'public' debate around that agenda. Through a specialist focus on educational publishing, the paper is able to identify some of the key issues that need to be addressed in order to revivify the public sphere and reintegrate it into what is becoming an increasingly 'professionalised' debate on education.     

全球学生流动的特点、影响因素与趋势

本文在联合国教科文组织、经合组织和美国国际教育协会2018年发布的全球学生流动数据基础上，结合相关文献，探究了全球学生流动的特点、影响因素与趋势。研究发现：全球学生流动呈现出流入流出区域较为集中、硕博层次流动比例高、STEM领域流动性强等特点；全球学生流动受到政策、经济和教育等方面因素的影响；其趋势表现为美英两国的国际学生增速放缓，加澳两国有望成为接收国际学生的新增长极，东亚和东非的学生流动性将有所提高。建议评估影响国际学生选择的可能因素，加快和扩大教育对外开放，建设留学教育强国。     

The OECD and the local: PISA-based Test for Schools in the USA

The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) has recently piloted the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA)-based Test for Schools in the USA. In this paper, I contend that by connecting directly with local school boards this new initiative has the potential to further promote the OECD's educational agenda in local policy debates. I begin to develop this argument by providing an overview of the OECD and its work. I then lay out a theoretical framework around global governance and knowledge production within the context of the OECD. Next, I provide a brief overview of the traditional PISA study and compare it to the new PISA-based Test for Schools initiative. This context provides the foundation for a discussion of the ways in which a school-based international assessment can operate as a governance tool, allowing international organizations to have greater influence in the formation and implementation of local educational policies.     

Future developments of educational research in the Asia-Pacific Region: Paradigm shifts, reforms, and practice

In facing up to the challenges and impacts of globalization, high technology, economic transformation, international competitions and local developments in the new century, there have been numerous educational reforms and initiatives in many countries in the Asia-Pacific Region (Cheng, 2005a, A new paradigm for re-engineering education : Globalization, localization and individulization. Dordrecht, The Netherlands: Springer). Unfortunately, many of these educational reforms with good intentions and huge resources investment have been found ineffective and unsustainable if not totally failed. One of the major reasons for this is lack of a comprehensive knowledge base for policy development and implementation supported by sophisticated and relevant educational research. From the waves and trends of educational reforms in the Asia-Pacific Region, this article aims to draw implications for future developments of educational research in supporting paradigm shifts, policy formulation, and practice of educational reforms in the Region and other parts of the world in an era of globalization and transformation. This article was adapted from the president address at the International Conference of Asia-Pacific Educational Research Association held on 28–30 November 2006, Hong Kong.     

Bernstein revisited: the recontextualisation of equity in contemporary Australian school education

This article draws on the sociology of Basil Bernstein to show how his detailed theories of ‘recontextualisation’ and the ‘pedagogic device’ provide useful analytic levers to examine the politics of educational change. We focus on recent policy developments that have significantly impacted Australian school education: the Program for International Student Assessment; the National Assessment Programme for Numeracy and Literacy; and the government’s public dissemination of school achievement data through the MySchool website. The analysis illustrates the ways in which the logics of economic rationalism not only have become ubiquitous in Australian education policy, but have come to recontextualise – or reshape – discourses of social and educational equity through new norms of competition, standardisation and commensurability. In doing so, the paper highlights the value of a Bernsteinian approach to understanding the vernacular character of neoliberalism in contemporary educational policy.     

道通为一:国内与国际经济竞争法的空间重构

作为空间广阔的大国的经济法律制度的设计往往与小国大相径庭.中国目前所面临的一系列“大规模发展难题”,往往就是由于大国空间效应所造成的.中国法学要专注于一种“有容乃大”的性格,而经济法学的研究尤其应该如此.在全球一体化的大背景下,将国内经济法与国际经济法割裂开来的时代已经一去不复返,两者脉脉相通,息息相关.在中国,地区保护主义和国际贸易保护主义这两者均是竞争法所必须认真对待的问题.地方保护主义有政府的身影.国际贸易保护主义亦不例外.国际贸易保护主义就是国家政府的一种行动,政府为企业在国际竞争中助一臂之力.在某种意义上,中国经济法的“反帝反封建”的任务依然存在.     

Constructions of locality and gender and their impact on the educational aspirations of working-class children

Over recent years the moral panic that has surrounded 'boys' underachievement' has tended to encourage crude and essentialist comparisons between allboys and allgirls and to eclipse the continuing and more profound effects on educational achievement exerted by social class and 'race'/ethnicity. While there are differences in educational achievement between working-class boys and girls, these differences are relatively minor when comparing the overall achievement levels of working-class children with those from higher, professional social class backgrounds. This article argues that a need exists therefore for researchers to fully contextualize the gender differences that exist in educational achievement within the overriding contexts provided by social class and 'race'/ethnicity. The article provides an example of how this can be done through a case study of 11-year-old children from a Catholic, working-class area in Belfast. The article shows how the children's general educational aspirations are significantly mediated by their experiences of the local area in which they live. However, the way in which the children come to experience and construct a sense of locality differs between the boys and girls and this, it is argued, helps to explain the more positive educational aspirations held by some of the girls compared with the boys. The article concludes by considering the relevance of locality for understanding its effects on educational aspirations among other working-class and/or minority ethnic communities.     

我国教育法典编纂的 “不完全法典化进路”分析

我国教育法典应属于体系型法典，并采用“不完全法典化进路”，即仅实现重要法律关系的法典化，同时允许调整相对次要法律关系的单行法并行存在。国际上，美国采用汇编式模式，俄罗斯采用完全法典化模式，日本采用“总则+单行法”模式，唯有法国的不完全法典化模式在我国具备切实的现实依据。无论从理论还是实践来看，“不完全法典化进路”在我国都更具可操作性，更符合我国的立法传统。我国教育法典宜采用《教育基本法典》作为名称；依据现实性、体系性、全面性标准对既有立法进行系统归纳，展开立法填补；在总分结构的基础上，其规制范围包括从学前教育到终身教育的不同教育阶段，以及学位、教师、考试、学校等教育主体或现象。     

Combining Economic and Conjoint Analysis to Determine Optimal Academic Services

In today's era of global competition, organizations must manage their functions and activities in a manner such that they are responsive to customers' needs and can provide excellence in service to the customer while also being efficient and cost conscious. These issues are extremely common in corporate organizations, but such concerns are equally relevant in service industries, including institutions of higher education. This study is conducted at a private, undergraduate institution of higher education. We utilize focus group evaluation and conjoint analysis combined with economic analysis in the form of a newly designed preferred utility economic cost diagram to pick the ideal services that should be provided to enrolled students at the institution. The package of ideal services accounts for preferred utility expressed by students and a new methodology (preferred utility function) to balance these against financial considerations to optimize services and financial gains for a college adult education program. This combination of focus groups and mathematical techniques can be easily employed by educational institutes.     

School and Community Impacts of Hydraulic Fracturing Within Pennsylvania's Marcellus Shale Region,and the Dilemmas of Educational Leadership in Gasfield Boomtowns

Innovations associated with gas and oil drilling technology, including new hydraulic fracturing and horizontal drilling techniques, have recently led to dramatic boomtown development in many rural areas that have endured extended periods of economic decline. The Marcellus Shale play, one of the world's largest gas-bearing shale formations, lies beneath approximately two-thirds of Pennsylvania, including some of the state's most economically lagging rural areas. Spurred by a state-level policy environment favorable to unconventional gas extraction, drilling activity in the last five years has rapidly increased, often with profound social, economic, and environmental implications for communities. In this paper we use schooling as a particular analytic lens for understanding the dynamics of natural resource boomtown development, community change, and how these changes may affect educational and instructional decision making. Using data from interviews and focus groups with educators and administrators in Pennsylvania communities experiencing intensive natural gas development, we discuss the multiple organizational, curricular, and educational dilemmas school leaders face in the context of both rapid, unpredictable community change, and an educational policy environment unfavorable to place-sensitive educational responses to local change.     

Promotion,Persuasion and Class-taste: Marketing (in) the UK post-compulsory sector

Post-16 providers in the UK now offer a wide range of courses and training in order to respond to the expanded, diversified and 'non-traditional' post-16 market. School leavers are invited to 'choose' from a range of courses and pathways which are being provided in a variety of post-16 educational institutions. These providing institutions are in competition with one another and 'need' the students as their funds are contingent upon successful recruitment (and retention). As a result, many post-16 providers are turning to aspects of marketing in order to publicise their courses and maintain or increase their share of the market. This paper examines two major tactics in the promotion and marketing of post-16 provision-brochures and open days-in relation to issues such as access, targeting, response to 'difference' in the client group/market segment and 'professionalism' of approach. The paper argues that market tactics do semiotic 'work' as class-taste markers.     

异地高考政策对随迁子女高等教育机会的影响——比较乡-城、城-城两类流动人口的差异

大多数学者认为异地高考政策更加有利于家庭条件较好的随迁子女,少数学者则认为该政策能有效保障农村随迁子女的教育权益,但已有文献仍缺乏关于异地高考政策对两类流动人口高等教育机会影响差异的比较研究。基于2017年中国流动人口动态监测调查数据,本文探讨了异地高考政策对城乡随迁子女高等教育机会的影响,并探究了该政策的调节作用。研究发现,异地高考政策对农村随迁子女高等教育机会的促进作用显著高于城镇随迁子女,且这种效应仅在高政策门槛地区存在,低门槛地区不存在。从政策的调节作用来看,异地高考政策有助于提高农村流动人口子女随迁的意愿,且对农村随迁子女高等教育机会的促进作用要显著高于农村留守子女。同时,异地高考政策可显著降低农村随迁子女家庭社会经济地位对其子女高等教育机会的影响。为此,各地方政府应坚持并完善异地高考政策,充分发挥该政策促进高等教育公平的杠杆作用;流入地政府要进一步提高本地高中教育服务能力;中央政府要进一步推进、完善高考录取制度改革。     

Assessment in Nepal

The operation and quality of assessment activities and procedures is closely bound up with the wider educational, economic and social infrastructure of a country. This paper reviews educational assessment in one of the world's poorest countries, and discusses the factors that determine how assessment and examinations are structured, and how their outcomes are used. The authors describe developments that have sought to bring about change and improvement, and review the factors that continue to limit these developments, whilst recognising the enormous progress that has already been made.